13. The Canadian and New South Wales Governments telegraphed to the Colonial Secretary offering a further contingent of volunteers for service in South Africa. The other Australian colonies expressed their wish to co-operate.

The German flag hoisted at Apia, and the Samoans having been told that they might elect their own king, declared for Mataafa.

14. A London and North-Western train from Hereford on entering Crewe station ran into the stop-blocks with great force, and nineteen passengers were severely injured. The brakes in consequence of the frost would not act.

Freemasons of high degree of the United States and Canada held services at Mount Vernon over George Washington's tomb on the centenary of his death.

Mahmoud Pasha, the Sultan's brother-in-law, supposed to have been connected with the Young Turkish party, left Constantinople hurriedly, with difficulty evading arrest by taking refuge on a French steamer.

15. General Sir Redvers Buller, attempting to force the passage of the Tugela, was forced to retire without achieving his purpose, and of his artillery two field batteries had to be abandoned, all their horses having been killed by the Boers' fire. The guns were not carried off by the Boers until the next day,

A special army order issued for the mobilisation of the seventh division, and of the Reservists belonging to its battalions.

16. Field Marshal Lord Roberts appointed Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, with General Lord Kitchener as Chief of the Staff.

All the remaining Reserves, including Section D, called up, and the Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteers invited to contribute contingents to the forces abroad.

18. Mr. Chamberlain visited Dublin to receive the degree of honorary D.C.L. from Trinity College, and received a great ovation from the students, but an attempt was made in the streets to organise a display of feeling in favour of the Boers.

- The Bordeaux express train ran into a fast train in advance of it at Montmoreau on the Orleans line. Two passengers were killed, and twenty-two injured, some seriously.

The Duc d'Orléans addressed to his agent in Paris, the Duc de Luynes, an insulting telegram, repudiating the support of M. Arthur Meyer, editor of the Gaulois, on the ground of his religion.

19. A train standing in the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway station at Bermondsey was run into by another arriving from Oxted. Two passengers were killed on the spot, seven other passengers and three servants were injured.

General Henry Lawton, second in command of the United States forces in the Philippines, killed by a sharpshooter while leading the assault on San Mateo.

Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, speaking at Aberdeen, declared

that the Government must prosecute the war so as to bring it to an end as promptly as possible.

20. At a meeting of the Common Council, held at the Guildhall, the Lord Mayor proposed that the City of London should provide a regiment of 1,000 men chosen from the marksmen in Volunteer regiments, and that the cost of the equipment and despatch of the men to South Africa should be borne by the Corporation, the City of London, and the City Livery Companies. Messrs. Wilson of Hull placed at the disposal of the City a fitted transport for three months.

The election for Clackmannan and Kinross, consequent on the appointment of Mr. J. B. Balfour (L.) to the Presidency of the Court of Session, resulted in the return of Mr. Wason (L.) by 3,489 against 2,973 votes given to Mr. Younger (U.).

M. Déroulède sentenced to a further term of two years' imprisonment for again grossly insulting the President of the Republic and the High Court before which he was being tried.

21. At a meeting of the council of the Prince of Wales' Hospital Fund, held at Marlborough House, it was stated that the receipts for the year had been 47,8087.-about 9,000l. above those of the preceding year.

In response to a request, Lord Roberts sent a message to the American and Canadian peoples expressing himself grateful for their sympathy and entire confidence in the British soldiers.

22. Insalah, an oasis in the Sahara Desert, east of Tuat, occupied by the French scientific expedition under M. Flamant, who, having repulsed a body of 1,200 troops, the natives of the surrounding country made their submission.

A terrible landslip occurred at Amalfi, on the Bay of Naples, a huge portion of the rock above the town detached itself, and swept away the Albergo dei Capuccini and a number of other houses, smashed the lighthouse, and swamped several boats and steamers.

The Austrian Cabinet formed by Count Clary resigned in consequence of the continued obstruction of the Czechs, and reformed under Dr. von Wittek.

An explosion took place in the chemical house of the Douglas (Isle of Man) Gasworks, followed by a serious fire, by which much damage was done, and three workmen lost their lives.

Mr. Winston Churchill, who had been taken prisoner near Colenso, and sent to Pretoria, escaped, and after much hardship reached Delagoa Bay in safety.

23. The holiday traffic much impeded by three railway accidents, two of which were due to the dense fog which hung over the south of England. At Wivelsfield, near Hayward's Heath, the Brighton express ran into the Newhaven boat train; six persons were killed, and upwards of twenty-six injured. At Slough a Bristol express ran into a Windsor train, but only two persons were seriously injured. On the Caledonian Railway a passenger train ran off the metals between Strathaven and Hamilton, and fell down an embankment. A guard and two passengers were killed, and ten passengers seriously injured.

24. The " Holy Year" 1900 inaugurated at Rome by the solemn opening of the "holy door" at St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, and St. Maria Maggiore, the Pope officiating at St. Peter's in great state.

The steamship Ariosto, from Galveston to Hamburg, stranded on Orracoke Beach, North Carolina shore, and twenty-one persons out of thirty were drowned.

25. The whole of the 3rd Bengal (native) Cavalry voluntarily subscribed a day's pay to the Transvaal War Fund.

Africa.

The Queen sent Christmas greetings to the troops in South

26. The Queen, who had remained at Windsor for Christmas, gave a tea-party in St. George's Hall to the wives and children of noncommissioned officers and soldiers serving in South Africa, and belonging to regiments stationed at Windsor.

-The garrison at Mafeki ng made an unsuccessful attempt to storm the advance posts of the besieging force, notice of the intended sortie having been communicated by spies to the Boers.

27. The fifteenth Indian National Congress assembled at Lucknow, and was attended by nearly 1,000 delegates, of whom about onehalf were Mahomedans. Mr. Romesh Clumder Dutt was elected president.

- Several cases of bubonic plague reported from Noumea and other places in New Caledonia.

The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maharajah of Gwalior offered their troops, their purses, and their own swords to defend her Majesty's empire.

28. The Queen, accompanied by Princess Henry of Battenberg, left Windsor for Osborne.

At Odessa the military chief of the recruiting district put on his trial for corruption, found guilty, and condemned to deprivation of his military rank and orders, of his personal civil rights and property, and exile to Tobolsk for one year.

29. A furious south-westerly gale prevailed round the British coasts, interrupting all communication with the continent. A large Hamburg-American liner, the Patria, went ashore off Dungeness, and became a complete wreck. The South Goodwin light-ship was also driven from her moorings, and was dreadfully damaged by the surf on the sand.

H.M.S. Magicienne brought into Durban the German steamer Bundesrath, seized off Delagoa Bay with contraband of war, and German officers and men on board.

30. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland.

31. The German Emperor by decree decided that with the present year the nineteenth century was closed, so far as concerned Germany. The Bureau des Longitudes at Paris declared that for France the century would not close until the end of the following year. Great newspaper controversy took place on the subject in England, where the majority seemed disposed to take the French view.

RETROSPECT

OF

LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART IN 1899.

LITERATURE.

If there was nothing specially striking in the literary output of 1899, it yet showed no falling-off from that of 1898; and in making this comparison it must be borne in mind that, whilst in 1898 the book world may have been slightly depressed by foreign disturbances, it suffered in the winter of 1899 a decided discouragement from the anxiety caused by the progress of the Boer war, which undoubtedly caused publishers to hold back some books of importance from publication. At the same time in one department, that of biography, reminiscences, and collections of letters, last year was certainly more productive of works of importance than its predecessor. Works of criticism and books about artists or schools of art continue to hold a prominent place, both in quantity and quality, in the publishers' lists. The temper of the time is rather to look backwards than forwards, to express itself rather in works of reflection and industry than in works of high imagination or bold speculation. This is illustrated by the immense number of reprints of English classics, the publication of which has marked the last few years and which continue to issue from the press with unabated persistence.

POETRY.

The twentieth century is not, it would appear, to be like the nineteenth ushered in by any new poetic voices. We noted last year the apparent pause in poetic utterance, and 1899 has been even more barren than 1898. The Poet Laureate, Mr. Meredith, Mr. Kipling and Mr. William Watson have published nothing in book form. Among the small band of poets whose work has aroused interest and expectation Mr. Davidson and Mr. Francis Thompson have been silent. Mr. Swinburne has in Rosamund (Chatto & Windus) added another to his poetic plays. It is more strictly dramatic in quality than his earlier plays, but is not equal to them either in conception or expression. One event of interest was an excursion into poetic drama made by Mr. Stephen Phillips, a young poet whose verse, though small in quantity, had already attracted a good deal of attention. His play, which was called

Paolo and Francesca (Lane), was received by the critics with a chorus of approbation. The plot is founded strictly on Dante, and the most noticeable feature of this first attempt by a young writer in poetic drama is that he manages to instil the true note of tragedy into a style classically severe and simple. The play was written avowedly for the stage, and may be regarded as an honest attempt to revive the literary drama. Its merit lies not so much in its dramatic construction as a whole, as in the distinction which almost always marks its style, and in two or three finely conceived situations.

Two other poets who are likely to claim more than a passing interest have published new work. Mr. W. B. Yeats cultivates a poetic field of his own. He is the exponent of Celtic thought, mystery and legend. He issued in the spring a volume called The Wind among the Reeds (Elkin Mathews), and, a little later, a volume called Poems (Unwin), containing, as he said in his preface, all of his published poetry which he cares to preserve. It contains melodious verse, even when the thought is vague and shadowy, and revives the mystical regretful dreams of the old Irish folklore. The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges (Smith, Elder) have been published, and in them the poet inserted some new poems of much beauty.

BELLES LETTRES.

In the way of imaginative prose literature, apart from fiction, there is, for 1899, nothing to report. The periodical press now-a-days absorbs the energies of those whose gifts lie in this direction, and even critical essays are seldom given to the world for the first time in book form. The only volumes which come under this head, therefore, consist of reprinted and collected articles. Of these there have been a good many of interest, but only two which, from the standing of their writers and their own interest, demand a mention. One is Mr. Austin Dobson's A Paladin of Philanthropy and Other Papers (Chatto & Windus), containing essays ranging over a large variety of subjects, full of eighteenth century lore, conveyed in the writer's elegant and scholarly style. The subject of the essay which gives the book its title is the General Oglethorpe who founded Georgia, and who figures in Boswell's "Johnson." The other collection is Mr. Frederic Harrison's Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill and Other Literary Estimates (Macmillan). Our description of this book as a volume of reprinted papers must have one important qualification, for it contains an original study of Tennyson which had not previously been published, and in which Mr. Harrison challenged discussion on the subject of Tennyson's martial and patriotic In this he contends that the late Laureate often produced "not poetry but journalism."

verse.

The library of literary histories which the past few years have produced has received more additions. There has recently been much effort to kindle public interest in the old literature of Ireland. As a result of this movement, we have Dr. Douglas Hyde's A Literary History of Ireland (Unwin). The author does not include in his survey the later Anglo-Irish writers who have added so many distinguished names to the record of English literature. Apart from them